Environmental protesters clashed with police at the port of La Rochelle in western France on Saturday, AFP journalists saw, as conservationists and small farmers mobilized against huge irrigation reservoirs under construction.
A march of 2,000 people, one of two that passed through the city, was rejected and stopped at around 2pm (1200 GMT) after being charged by police.
Running battles broke out around barricades and burning trash cans, as some threw projectiles and police fired tear gas grenades.
“We were at the demonstration, they started blocking us in front and behind. They isolated us on one side to attack everyone else,” said Lilia, a 25-year-old woman who did not want to reveal her second name.
A police source told AFP that around 400 participants in the march were so-called far-left “black bloc” radicals.
Prosecutors in La Rochelle said a police officer suffered burns and five slightly injured protesters received medical care.
Several stores were damaged or looted, along with bus shelters and advertising hoardings.
The second, more peaceful march, made up of around 3,000 people, including some families, moved from the city center towards the commercial port.
Some used kayaks or inflatable boats to get closer to the La Pallice agricultural export terminal, identified by organizers as the target of the demonstrations.
By 3 p.m., around 3,500 people from the two marches were still gathered at the seafront, a police source said.
Police had used tear gas early on Saturday to clear away around 200 people who entered the terminal in the early hours, including farmers with old tractors.
This confrontation ended mostly peacefully.
– Hydrical stress –
The protests in the city on France’s Atlantic coast were intended to show that new “reservoirs are not being built to grow food locally, but to feed international markets,” said Julien Le Guet, spokesman for the “Reservoirs, No, Thanks” movement. . .
Activists say the reservoirs, which will be filled from aquifers in winter to provide irrigation in summer, only benefit large farmers, to the detriment of smaller operations and the environment.
Several dozen are under construction in western France, with advocates saying that without them the farms risk disappearing as they suffer from repeated droughts.
Last year, mass clashes between thousands of protesters and police in Sainte-Soline, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) inland from La Rochelle, left two protesters in a coma and injured 30 officers.
Further fights broke out on Saturday when protesters returned to the center of La Rochelle from the agricultural port, with some throwing fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.
“Cease fire, there are children on the march,” shouted Le Guet.
“Don’t make the same mistake as Sainte-Soline.”
Fears of clashes have been high throughout the week, with more than 3,000 police stationed around a “Water Village” protest camp in Melle, a few kilometers from Sainte-Soline, while authorities warned of the risk of “major violence “.
City hall tried to ban demonstrations in the popular summer tourist destination La Rochelle, but organizers went ahead.
On Saturday, “our goal was not to conflict with the authorities, it is often the authorities who intend to conflict with us,” said Juliette Riviere, a member of the SLT.
Prosecutors said six people were taken into custody as of mid-afternoon Saturday.
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